shoemilk writes: On June 15th, with an overwhelming majority, the Japanese Diet passed a law criminalizing ripping DVDs, and updated an existing law criminalizing downloading pirated materials. Starting in January of 2010, downloading pirated content was made illegal but without a stated punishment. This law has been updated to set a penalty of up to 2 years in jail or up to 20 million yen. (Link to Japanese article http://japan.cnet.com/news/business/35018227/)